There is a recognized need for a means to mount a pistol holster to the side of a bed to permit ready access to a pistol received in the holster. In recent years, there have been increasing numbers of incidents of burglars, rapists and other criminals breaking into homes at night and committing serious and violent crimes. Many have concluded that they must provide for their own personal security and have acquired handguns which they keep, variously, in dresser or nightstand drawers, under the mattress, etc. Each of these approaches is fraught with the obvious disadvantage that the protective handgun is not readily available when most needed.
There have been three devices of which I am aware which have sought to address the problem. Henson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,930, discloses a pistol mounting bracket which mounts a pistol holster adjacent to the side of the bed by means of a mounting plate in the vertical plane immediately adjacent to the mattress supported by a horizontal plate extending between the mattress and box spring. In some measure, this solves part of the problem in that the pistol is more readily available than in a drawer or under the mattress, etc. The Henson device suffers serious disadvantages, however, in that adequate space is not provided for permitting the user to grip the handgun, the handgun is at an almost inaccessible orientation, and the handgun is likely to become tangled in the bedding. Keenan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,442, disclosed a mechanism which tended to orient the handgun for easier access but did not address other serious problems. For example, while it is possible with both the Henson and Keenan devices to extend the support plate only partially under the mattress, there is no means for providing a stop and for assuring that the holster is not turned in an awkward or inaccessible position. Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,148, disclosed a rather complex mechanism for mounting a pistol on both sides of a bed, having a strap extending across the bed between the mattress and box spring. Jones' mechanism included a removable mount for the holster, but did not address the most serious of the problems involved in this art, namely, assuring that the holster and handgun are readily accessible, properly oriented and spaced from the side of the bed.
The present invention is a holster mount which positions the pistol slightly away from the bed in a firm, fixed and secure manner to enable the user to grip the handle without pinching his thumb against the side of the bed and reducing the risk of grasping bedding along with the handgun, which supports the holster at a readily accessible angle, and which secures the holster in place.